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| Baseball-Page 3 | August 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||
| So if the Yankees, year-in and year-out, out-spend all of its rivals, and year-in and year-out win championships, why should anyone be upset? Isn't that the natural outcome of the rational business decision all of these rational owners make every year. And if year-in and year-out, the Cubs spend very little on talent and field a lousy product, why should anyone be upset by that? Isn't that the natural outcome of the rational business decision made by the Tribune Company? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| This strikes the panel as unfair and not healthy for the game. It is unhealthy, they say for the Yankees to spend more money than anyone else on payroll. I guess they want the Yankees to spend less so the Cubs can spend more. But why force the Cubs to spend more? They've decided fielding a mediocre product is in their best interest. Who is George Will to tell them differently? |
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| The Blue Ribbonist think I'm missing something. There is an externality involved. The Yankees (and every other team) only have a value because it is part of this group called Major League Baseball. No one would pay to see the Yankees take the field for batting practice, or play against the cast of "Eight is Enough." And because the value of the Yankees is derived by membership in this club, the Yankees should pay fees, based on the revenues it generate to everyone in the League. Or in George Will's words, "To buy a team is not to buy an entitlement to all dollars generated by games in that market. Rather, it is to buy an association with MLB. All revenue streams of all teams flow from that association." (The Sacramento Bee, August 11, 2002) There's only one problem with this argument: It's not true. "All" revenue of "all" teams do not flow from their association with MLB. For instance, the Harlem Globetrotters have survived quite a long time without being a member of a league and kicking the snot out of a team with all the talent (both acting and athletic) of the cast of "Eight is Enough." I believe the Yankees would have a value playing fake games against fake opponents, like the WWF and the Harlem Globetrotters. |
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| If "all" revenue flowed from a team's association with MLB, there wouldn't be local teams at all, because their wouldn't be a value in creating that local brand. Imagine touring teams, without any local attachment, playing games in local stadiums all summer long. In New York you would see the Yankees as many times as the Orioles and the Sox and the Braves and the Dodgers. Is that the same product, does that generate the revenue, does that create the same value as the New York Yankees playing 50% of their games in the Bronx? Of course not. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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